Bittersweet and Strange
by Yotsubadancesintherain5
Summary: Two promises are made between Madoka and Homura.
1. Promise of a Crepe Date

**A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on May 31-June 2 2019**

The breaded pastry was stuffed with whipped cream and strawberries and Madoka bit into it with a hungered relish. Homura could only smile, faintly, and pull off a strand of her comparatively diminutive cotton candy to eat.

This started, earlier, when Madoka grabbed her by the hand and declared, "It's a _crepe_ date," and Homura couldn't even process whether date meant in the monthly sense or the romantic sense because Madoka pulled her to run.

"Monthly sense, then," Homura thought to herself. The sugar in her mouth dissolved. She forlornly pulled off another bundle of the pink spun sugar.

"I'm sorry for pulling on your arm," Madoka said when she finished her bite of crepe. "I wanted to get out of school before Sayaka started teasing me. She found out about this in the morning, she overhead Hitomi and I talking on the way to school."

Homura raised one eyebrow and Madoka fidgeted before she spoke again.

"If she knew I was going on a date we would be there forever!" she exclaimed. "I like that she always cheers me on but sometimes she chews up time like a _shark_-"

"A date?"

"This is a date," Madoka clarified after a few seconds of awkward silence. "Papa says that a first date is good with sweet crepes."

Homura could feel her mouth spread into a smile, and rather dazedly looked at her cotton candy.

"I didn't get one."

"Here!" Madoka said.

She lifted up the crepe, and a dollop of whipped cream fell to the ground. There were a few strawberries left.

Homura lifted it to her mouth with one hand, thought too late, "This counts as an indirect kiss," and decided right then and there that if it wasn't pointed out then it was fine.

"It's good," she said when she finished, and she returned to her treat as Madoka resumed eating the crepe.

"Oh, people hold hands on dates, right?" Madoka asked after she got a few bites in, and Homura looked at her cotton candy.

"My hands are sticky," she said.

"That's okay!" Madoka replied. "I got a little whipped cream on my hands. We can wash them with my hand sanitizer."

It was an unintended incentive for Homura to hurriedly eat her cotton candy so that her hands would be free. When they found a trash bin Homura threw away the paper stick with an unusual fervor. She missed the flap of the window multiple times in trying to push the paper stick inside the bin.

Madoka calmly threw away the paper that was wrapped around her crepe, took out the hand sanitizer from her bag, and washed her hands. Homura nearly dropped it with her fumbling, and handed it back when she was done.

Madoka held out her hand and Homura took it.

"I promise I'll tell you next time when we have a date," Madoka said as they walked.

"You can surprise me again." A crepe date was a very good usage of a day.


	2. Promise of Safety

The final waves of misery of the Witch dissipated all at once, to which Homura faltered for the briefest of moments, and she did not look back.

Madoka felt so light in her arms. They were similar heights, similar weights, and yet Homura carried her like she weighed nothing at all. Poems, bittersweet words, sprouted up in her mind and Homura thought then that she should have struggled with this weight in her arms.

But she was no longer human. She could walk and talk but something was missing, had been missing for so long, where it felt like the space where her soul used to be was hardened and twisted into an everlasting weight.

Homura blinked. A teardrop rolled down Madoka's cheek.

"She will be the one crying," Homura thought, carelessly, and she focused on her hardened weight. Anything to block out Kyoko's quiet resolve, her peace with dying, Sayaka forever lost in her own self-hatred, Mami half-eaten and limp-

"_You finally called me by my name. I'm happy_."

Homura stopped suddenly, took in a breath. She looked down at Madoka, and forced everything down again.

"I'll keep going," she said, a renewed resolve in her tone. "I'll protect you."


End file.
